Erulkar, Annabel, “Child Domestic Work and Transitions to Commercial Sexual Exploitation: Evidence from Ethiopia,” The Population Council (January 2018)

URL: www.popcouncil.org/uploads/pdfs/2018PGY_ChildDomesticWorkEthiopia.pdf

Abstract

Child domestic work is one of the most common forms of child labor globally. The vast majority of the world’s 17.2 million child domestic workers are girls. A new analysis documents how out-of-school migrant girls in Ethiopia are subjected to domestic labor—often a pipeline to commercial sex exploitation—and offers important recommendations on how to address these abuses to safeguard the human rights of girls in Ethiopia.

This document discusses the prevalence of domestic work as a feeder profession for commercial sexual exploitation/commercial sex work in Ethiopia. The statistics are alarming, as nearly half of all commercial sex workers in the study were formerly domestic workers; forty-one percent reported they entered sex work to escape abuse at their former employment; and one in five were involved in sex work due to deception or trickery by an employer or broker.